2000-2001 UAF Catalog

Research Institutes and Centers

Research

Arctic Region Supercomputing Center

The Arctic Region Supercomputing Center (ARSC) supports high performance computational research in science and engineering with an emphasis on high latitudes and the Arctic. Founded in 1992, ARSC is located in the Butrovich Building on the UAF main campus and provides the university with state-of-the-art supercomputing and visualization resources.

Researchers at UAF make significant contributions to science on state, national and international levels using ARSC resources. Research projects in a variety of disciplines are underway including climate, global warming, weather and coupled ocean/ice/atmosphere modeling, arctic engineering, space physics, tsunami modeling, vulcanology, geology and arctic biology. ARSC also provides resources for researchers from the U.S. Department of Defense, other academic institutions and federal agencies.

ARSC operates a massively parallel Cray T3E 900 System and a Cray J932 high performance vector supercomputer. A StorageTek robotic tape silo is capable of storing over 300 terabytes of data. A high-speed network connects UAF researchers and students to the world.

ARSC maintains four labs on campus and supports classes where graduate and undergraduate students learn to use powerful tools for creating animations and images. ARSC's video production facility is outfitted with professional, broadcast-quality video editing equipment for producing animations or video of scientific research results.

Specialists at ARSC provide expertise in high performance visualization, massively parallel and vector supercomputing, code optimization and networking. ARSC sponsors faculty appointments to enhance collaboration between the center and the university.